Here is the essence of the article. Employees in stigmatized occupations can be helped with an array of techniques to cope with or even feel proud of their jobs,

including developing an occupational ideology to confer a more positive image on the work;

creating social buffers such as professional associations;

and avoiding specifics in conversation with outsiders.

Trust someone in Harvard to come up with this gem of false pride.

This has left Dr. Z wondering how many sewer workers sit down to craft an occupational ideology. For example, “you know Joe if we are dwelling within the existential zeitgeist approach to sewers we are the new proletariat of the masses.”

Creating social buffers would involve more detour signs around a work-site and the professional association would meet at Moe’s bar after work for beer and lively repartee. Of course when someone outside the city sewer department walks past the workers at the bar they would stop the sewer flow of conversation and pretend to be an Amway group.

Of course remember that pride cometh before the fall…now, back to the sewer and further discussion of Friedrich Nietzsche’s, Thus Spoke Zarathustra role in creating self-actualized workers.

Dr. Z. has given instruction to staff that it is time to rekindle the leadership metaphor madness that was launched in the spring of this year. He said it might help anyone who is 6 months from and 6 months to the NCAA March Madness Basketball. So here we go with a little love…

Even if you are just starting out as an assistance manager at the local convenience store it is time to think beyond yourself, beyond the current time, to your ultimate legacy. Do you want to be remembered as the leader who put the slur in slurpee or the ho in hoagie or do you want to be remembered as the leader who courageously and religiously never let one of those scary hotdogs be skewered in the rotating oven for more than 21 days?

A lot of people are confused with legacy. Read this: “legacy” is not a pejorative. Do not use it as such. Please consult your dictionary. A legacy is something that is left to another in a will; a bequest of personal property. The word is derived from the Latin “legare”, meaning “to leave by way of a will”. That’s it. By itself, it has neither positive nor negative connotations.

Some people confuse legacy with Emeril Lagasse which is also wrong. But his legacy of food and the word, BAM may live on.

So if your are not Emeril how do you cook up your leadership legacy. Here are the 5 key questions to create your personal big BAM:

Determine your defining contribution to the workplace beside the bowl of jellybeans in your cubicle (Don’t try to become Ronald Reagan, become more of who you already are — maybe try a bowl of m&ms)?

Ask who will miss you after you retire? If the answer is nobody then you have a legacy issue that needs to be addressed.

What will they say you did around the office (besides bringing donuts for your loyal followers)? Craft your legacy litany by signing all your emails with Bob: The guy who got things done. By the way, this works best if your name is Bob and you actually did something.

How did you make a difference? Were you courageous enough to stand out? Perhaps you wore a bowtie when all those around you dressed in drab business casual?

Serve the people you lead without taking credit for your service so that when you are gone people will say, “who was that masked man?”

Dr. Z. reminds you: Get a leg up on leadership by ensuringyour leadership has a legacy to stand on!

Dr. Z’s Leadership Institute is proud to have Mr. Eddie Cut join the faculty to teach you: Don’t Miss Manners or Miss Steak when the Stakes are High trust Mr. Eddie Cut. A bit of clever and cagey branding by Eddie to weave his own name in there. We can all learn something from this guru of greetings.

Here are 8 of Eddie’s Business Manner Maxims:

Public burping loses contracts and contacts: Belch in private for increased sales and networking.

Use cuticle power: Have clean finger nails to nail a new job.

Don’t fork up your future, always cut with a knife.

Well shined shoes add real polish to your PowerPoint presentation.

Sprinkle your conversation with the other person’s name to show them you know who they are and you are not afraid to say it.

When eating pizza with a client show pizzazz by not spitting your anchovies into the napkin. This will demonstrate to the client that you don’t mind fishy deals and you are ready to swallow just about anything.

Even if you work with a toxic boss never place bottles of rat poison on the conference table.

Develop the fine art of flossing. Never untie your shoe, take out your lace, and use it as dental floss to dislodge the hunk of steak embedded between your lower left molars. You come out looking like a real floss-loss, and this move, creative as it is, can be real deal breaker leaving you with nothing more than a small hunk of steak wedged to your shoelace.

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Dr. Z

No. Dr. Z. is not some reincarnate of Dr. Zhivago nor is he the much beloved Dr. Z. of the Chryler commercials.
Because of the fate of Joan of Arc and because of the constant threat of capture from Burgundian troops Dr. Z’s identity must remain anonymous, at least until his first book is published or someone is willing to pay him $50 to come and speak to a 4H-Club leadership jamboree.
Perhaps Dr. Z’s identify is superfluous, and don’t say that with your mouth full of dental implements.